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Mamurra, Eques Form/Anus MAMURRA, EQUES FORM/ANUS The recent attempt by Paul Thielscher to idendfy Mamurra with Vitruvius, author of the De architectura, has given Caesar's praefectusfabrum new interest. 1) Before thathis claim to farne (or notoriety) had been a result of Catullus' vitriolic attack. He has little deserved the attention thus paid to him. In the course of discussion of the corpus Catullianum a career has been outHned for hirn which will not bear intensive scrudny. Some elements in the poet's comments are clearly factual, and Mamurra's prodigality and wealth, his unscrupulous aetions and immoral character cannot be seriously quesdoned. However inferences, especially from the twenty-ninth poem, are so speculadve that a career rather different from the accepted version is probable2). References, other than those of Catullus, are scanty. The earliest are two in Cicero's letters to Atticus. Among other ills due to Caesar's actions in the fifdes were et Labieni divitiae et Mamurrae ... et Balbi horti et Tusculanum 3). These three men had I) Cf. RE s v. "Vitruvius," cols. 419-426; 427-489 (1961). Cited below as PT. A refutation of this posthumous article is headed "0 M Pauli Thielscher doctoris": P.Ruffel et J.Soubiran, "Vitruve ou Mamurra?" Pallas 11 (1962 [1964]) 123-179. Cited below as RS. Cf. my Supplementary Note. 2) Editors and critics dealing with Catullus have comments on Ma­ murra beyond his just due. These items, a few among many, are useful: H. A. J. Munro, CriJicisms and ElucidaJions 0/ CaJullus (Cambridge, 1878) notes on 29,57, II4f.; G.Q.Giglioli, NoJ. Scav. (1903) 391-94;F.Muenzer in RE s. V., cols. 966f. (1928); C.L.Neudling, A Prosopography Jo CaJullus (19~~) passim; K.Quinn, CaJullus: An InterpreJation (New York, 1973); F. della Corte, Personaggi CaJulliani (2nd ed., Florence, 1976). These editions of Catullus: R.Ellis (2nd ed., Oxford, 1889); W.Kroll (~th ed., Stuttgart, 1969); C.J.Fordyce (Oxford, 1961); K.Quinn (2nd ed., New York, 1973). Cf. also the Prolegomena to the ediJio maior of B. Schmidt (Leipzig, 1887), especially on dating. Munro's elaborate commentary suffers from his obsessive defense of Caesar and Mamurra. Neudling's collection of mate­ rial is useful but uncritical and at times erroneous: cf. his remarkable com­ ment on Caesar and Catullus (91): "They were, in the first place, both patricians..." All citations and quotations of the text are from the edition of Sir Roger Mynors, Oxford 19~8. 3) AJi. 7.7.6: from Formiae, December 19 (?), ~o. Text, date, place ofwriting from the edition ofD.R. Shackleton Bailey, no. 130. The place of writing may have led Cicero to link Mamurra with two more important men. Mamurra, eques Farmianus all been enriched in Caesar's service, and Cicero's hostile com­ ment is directed at Caesar rather than at the recipients of his largesse. Five years later Cicero described a visit to his estate by the dictator and his entourage. Among other items he wrote tum audivit (Caesar) de Mamurra, vultum non mutavit4). It is usually assumed that he heard news of the death of his former officer, but it could have been news of some difficulty in his business affairs 5). The fullest note on Mamurra is a fragment quoted by Pliny the EIder from the lost Exempla ofCornelius Nepos. Publication of this work almost certainly is to be dated 43 B.C. (Fragm. 34 M.)6): Primum Romae parietes crusta marmoris operuisse totos domus suae in Caelio monte Cornelius Nepos tradit Mamurram, Formiis natum, equitem Romanum, praefectum fabrum C. Caesaris in Gallia, ne quid indignitati desit, tali auctore inventa re. hic namque est Mamurra Catulli Veroniensis carminibus proscissus, quem, ut res est, domus ipsius clarius quam Catullus dixit habere quidquid habuisset Comata Gallia. namque adicit idem Nepos primum totis aedibus nullam nisi e marmore columnam habuisse et omnes solidas e Carystio aut Luniensi. The whole passage is quoted by Peter and Malcovati as a frag­ ment of the Exempla, and this may be correct. The first and third sentences are certainly from Nepos, but the middle sentence might be Pliny's own comment. Both authors dwelt upon 4) Alt. 13.52..1: from Puteoli(?), December 19, 45: SB, no. 353. It is possible that de means 'from', but Ciceronian usage makes 'Concerning' more likely. 5) Munro (84): "This is perhaps rightly now explained to mean that he heard of Mamurra's death ... perhaps Manutius' interpretation is right, that a sentence against Mamurra for transgressing the sumptuary laws ... was read to hirn ..." Muenzer (co!. 967): circumstances unknown. If he survived 45, he probably kept a low profile during the subsequent civil conflicts. However, if the report was de marle, Caesar's chilI reception of the news implied alienation from his former prefect. If he survived 45 B.C. reference to Mamurra in the Philippics of Cicero might be expected. Also Mamurra would have been most fortunate to have escaped proscription in 43-42 • 6) Plin. HN 36.48: Peter, HRR 2 (1906) frg. 24 of the Exempla: Malcovati's ed. ofNepos (1944)frg. 34. The dating ofthis work depends on Suetonius who noted young Caesar's abstemious use of wine (Aug. 77) in caslris apud Mutinam. This fragment was correctly assigned to the Exempla by Peter (frg. 5) and Malcovati (frg. 15), since it is clear that Nepos was contrasting earlier severity with later laxity in this work. Peter (p. LIII) dated it after 44/43. Cf. PT, 438-441. W.C. McDermott t increase in luxury and deterioration from mos maiorum. In two other passages Pliny shows familiarity with the poet and his poems 7). Under the Julio-Claudian emperors a villa Mamurrana was imperial property. Despite the use of the word villa this may refer to the domus of Mamurra in Caelio monle. Hence Pliny may have visited the mansion whicb he found mentioned by Nepos8). The only further reference to Mamurra in literature is the sentence in Suetonius which is presumably based on a lost work contemporary with the event (lul. 73): Valerium Catullum, a quo sibi uersiculis de Mamurra perpetua stigmata imposita non dissimulauerat, satis facientem eadem die adhibuit cenae hospitioque patris eius, sicut consuerat, uti perseuerauit. Without the references in Catullus this anecdote would have led scholars to speculation which would probably have resulted in the conclusion that the stigmala involved some financial double­ dealing, notorious even within the circle ofthe corrupt elements in Caesar's entourage. Moreover the reconciliation was evanes­ cent, even more so if we assurne that the poet arranged his own works and blatantly included poems offensive to Caesar 9). 7) HN pr. I: where he quoted Catullus (I.3-4) apparently from memory, called Catullus conterraneum meum, and cast a glance at two referen­ ces to Veraniolus and Fabullus (12, 17, 47.3). HN 37.81 where he cited details on the fabulous gem owned by the Nonius whom Catullus attacked (with a partial quotation of 52.2 - again apparently from memory). 8) A lead water-pipe with an inscription (vill(ae) Mamurranae) was found in Rome on the Caelian hill: A]A 6 (1890) 265; RS, 174, 176, no. 6. This was certainly Mamurra's mansion. Another inscription, found near the town of Marino (in Latium, 12 miles ·s. e. of Rome), is a sepulchral inscription for Claudia Prisca set up to his wife (a freedwoman) by Euty­ ches Tryphonianus (Caes. n. ser.: Le. of Augustus) who in lines 6-7 is disp(ensator) vill(ae) Mamurranae: CIL 14.243I; ILS 1586; cf. 133. This is certainly the same villa from which the lead water-pipe came. The inscrip­ tion set up by Eutyches gives no evidence for the location of the villa Mamurrana. However, an imperial slave who has as contubernalis a liberta whom he called uxor was an important official, despite his servile status, and could have had a suburban home near which he would honor the ashes of his wife. For this sodal pattern cf. P.R.C.Weaver, Familia Caesaris (Cambridge, 1972) II2-lU (for Eutyches II9, note 2) and B.Rawson, TAPA 104 (1974) 296f. A parallel is CIL 5197; ILS 1524. Musicus Scurranus, slave of Tiberius, was honored in a titulus sepukralis by fifteen . vicarii (each is listed with his function) and a sixteenth (Secunda) who was obviously his contubernalis. Mamurra's mansion in Rome (villa) had become imperial property by sale, testamentary bequest, or confiscation. 9) Cf. O.Weinreich, Catull: Liebesgedicht (Hamburg, 1960) 163-17°' Mamurra, eques Formianus Horaee in his aeeount of his journey with Maeeenas to Brundisium (probably in 38) wrote of his stop at Formiae, a name which eannot stand in daetylie hexameter and wrote (Sat. 1.5.37) in Mamurrarum lassi deinde urbe manemus. He may have been thinking of Catullus, but he may be reealling gossip with loeal folk who spoke of their eelebrities. We do not know whether our Mamurra was still live, but as late as A. D. 1°71 the city was ealled Mamorrano, a dear reeolleetion of Classical times 10). Pseudo-Aero and Porphyrio note the distinetion and wealth of several men of Mamurra's family, but, although these men were surely relatives of our eques, the dating and exaet relationship are not dearll). The same is true of two men mentioned in extant inseriptions12). A safe eondusion is that the Mamurras were prominent and wealthy in this ancient town on the shore at the southern border of Latium13), and that in late republiean times they were of equestrian rank. All further eon­ dusions are speeulative. For some interesting comments on the order of the poems by the poet in the corpus cf.
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